A beginner... a true beginner.

Hi all! It's me just checkin in on a Friday! I don't have too much to share on the blog today, but I wanted to tell you one little thing that I have been up to...

Trying to figure out my Christmas present from Randy-- my Photoshop Elements Software.
 Ugh.
 It is VERY overwhelming to me & not at all user friendly.
As a result, I have literally shelved it since mid-January & avoided it like the plague.

 My problem with Photoshop is 2 fold.
1) I feel like it should be simple- tap some buttons & voila you have a great photo. BUT that isn't the case. Simple things like switching from tool to tool can screw up a picture in the blink of an eye. Now to you seasoned PSE users out there- I am sure you are laughing at me right now. I am okay with that. I am a beginner. A REAL beginner & I have so much to learn. From shortcuts on the menu to actually using the layers/masks/actions.
2) I don't like HIGHLY edited photos. I don't like for the person to not look like themselves. I don't like looking at photos & thinking "there is no way those eyes are THAT blue". There is a difference in boosting the colors of a photo & completely changing the appearance to unnatural. I want to find a middle ground & make special pictures pop, but not overly change them. And i love a vintage feel to a photo, so actions that change the "feel" of a photo, I LOVE.

So, last night I decided I would give my software a go again. I have been following Pioneer Woman's blog for several years, & I had saved my link to her free Photoshop action sets. I love her photos & even though having her actions doesn't mean that my photos will be great like hers, I decided to start with using her actions because she speaks in plain english & doesn't use overly complicated language when it comes to photography. I respect that & she makes me understand easily, so I felt it was going to be easiest to start dappling in using actions by using hers. I hope to add more actions at a later time, once I understand the program more. But, there were 2 actions specifically I wanted to try out of hers... one called "Bring out the eyes" and one called "boost".

The girls had come over to play & eat dinner with us, and I had grabbed my camera while they were outside playing. When I uploaded this picture of Sara Beth... I thought it had some potential to be a sweet photo of her beautiful little face! And was a good picture including her eyes straight on to practice on! Here is the original, unedited... straight from the camera.... (ps, I know it isn't very sharp... I think my ISO was still high from the fairy tale ball...oops!)

 

 And here is my first attempt at using PW's actions... This is SO a beginner editing job, so really, don't look too closely! I know there are some flaws, but I haven't figured out how to fix them yet!). See? Beginner.
BUT, I am overall happy with the fact that I actually edited a picture in Photoshop! And I didn't get so mad that I just walked away! It took 2 hours from beginning of downloading actions to final result, but it was worth it for my growth!  The actions I used on this photo were "boost" and "bring out the eyes"...

 Then this morning, I decided I wanted to play around with it again. So I changed it up again... This time I used "slight light" and "vintage" actions. I actually love this one. I want to go back & boost the eyes a bit, but I need help with the magnetic lasso tool. Randy is hopefully going to help me work that tool tonight!

So, that's what I've been up to around here! I will be spending more time in this program as I can already tell how addictive it can be! Hope you all have a great weekend...
I am off to download a few more free actions!